those who were opposed to British methods and eventually in favour of separation from the Mother Country, even if that action involved war.

It is certain that a preponderance of those Loyalists was in New York, the capital of which colony was in possession of the British from September, 1776, until its evacuation after the surrender in 1783. A majority of the white citizens of Pennsylvania, as well as those of South Carolina and Georgia, also were Loyalists; and in all the other colonies a very large number of the better classes of citizens were British sympathisers. Probably there were over thirty thousand of the men in regularly organised military companies, besides those who carried on a guerilla warfare in South Carolina and other colonies.

Americans have come only lately to look upon these "Tories," as they were called contemptuously, with that fairness to which most of them were entitled. Surely no one will charge such a man as the late John Fiske with disloyalty to American institutions; yet he and other reputable writers compare the Loyalists of 1776 with the Union sympathisers in the Southern Confederacy during the Civil War of 1861-5. Others refuse to see anything good in the Loyalists and measure them entirely by their participation in such outrages as the Wyoming Valley massacre and similar acts which were brutal and indefensible.

A long list might be given of names which command respect; men who deprecated separation. It is an interesting fact that the relations between Great Britain and the Dominion of Canada are now regulated by just

such principles as were urged in the interests of England and her thirteen original colonies a hundred and thirty odd years ago. Gov. Thomas Hutchinson, a great Loyalist, to whom tardy justice has recently been done by impartial historians in the country wherein his motives and acts were for so long misunderstood and misrepresented, took that position."

*

During the war both Revolutionists and Loyalists displayed bitter hatred of each other. The latter's estates were confiscated, individuals imprisoned, banished, disqualified from holding office, and some who ventured to return after the war were subjected to severe penalties provided for by legislative enactments. The VIth article of the Treaty of Paris reads: "That there shall be no future confiscations made, nor any prosecutions commenced against any person or persons, for or by reason of the part which he or they may have taken in the present war; and that no person shall on that account suffer any loss or damage either in his person, liberty or property, and that those who may be in confinement on such charges at the time of the ratification of the Treaty in America, shall be immediately set at liberty, and the prosecutions so commenced be discontinued."

In spite of that obligation, those Loyalists who returned failed to secure return of confiscated estates or any generous treatment, and there was nothing for them to do but leave the United States. More than thirtyfive thousand went to Canada, and with them a large number of faithful negro servants. Most of the latter * Cf. Canada, 1769-1900, Sir John G. Bourinot.

were subsequently deported to Sierra Leone, Africa. A majority of the whites settled in New Brunswick; others in the St. Lawrence Valley and along the shores of the Great Lakes. The British Government tried to do its best to compensate these Loyalists for the loss of their property, by making liberal grants of land. Later some of the original refugees, or the descendants of others, made their way back to the United States; while many of the best families in the Dominion trace their ancestry back to these United Empire Loyalists.

Very briefly stated, the causes which led up to the war of 1812-15, between the United States and Great Britain were, first; the right of search of neutral vessels in time of war for contraband articles; and second; impressment of British sailors who were members of neutral vessels' crews. The United States, with abundant reason, contended that Great Britain was carrying out her alleged rights in these matters with absolute disregard for the rights of others. War was declared and although ultimate victory was gained by the United States, yet the main principles at issue were not formally decided. Impressment has long since been discontinued; but the right of search has not yet been positively fixed.

Canada suffered more than did Great Britain in the War of 1812, and Canadian publicists have justly contended that it was not fair to attack the provinces because of faults for which the Canadians were in no way responsible; but this was a weak position. The white population of Canada, in 1812, was estimated at half a million; that of the United States at six and a half millions. Yet the results of some of the land